Life is Amazing. Stress Isn't.

Everybody experiences stress at various stages of life. It can be a small amount, or huge, or a daily issue. But what really goes on when stress occurs? What happens to your body when you undergo stress? And what happens if it's a daily occurrence?

You know that saying "Stress kills"? Yeah, it really does. When you let stress get to you, it will break down your entire system. Just like if you keep pushing your car to its limits, eventually something will break. And it doesn't have to be a huge component, but it always starts with something small, and work its way to something much bigger.

When you look at the anatomy and physiology of the human body, it is amazing, yet complex. You see how the body was designed for purpose, how we are an amazing reflection of our awesome Creator, our God and our Saviour Jesus Christ. To me, it doesn't make sense that humans evolve from nothing. You can't leave chance to create a design, and for a purpose. We are all taught in school about evolution and the big bang theory and it is the only acceptable "science", but the topic of creation is considered "religion" and therefore banned from classrooms. If you think about it, evolution is a religion as well. It's called Athiesm. So for schools to be saying they don't teach religion and are not allowed, they are contradicting themselves. But that's another post for another day.

When I was about 13 years old, I accepted Christ into my life. Not because the church told me to. Not because my parents told me to. Not because my friends told me to. It was a few things combined actually. I had basic understanding of anatomy and physiology at that time, and biology was my favourite topic. I learned the basics of what a cell was, and memorized it, but really had no clue why I was doing it. I was memorizing all these things because that was part of the education system. And if I didn't do well, then I would fail school. Other than those two things, there really was no purpose.  It wasn't until my brother started teaching me the purpose of life. And when you can understand the purpose of life, everything starts to open up and make sense.

Anatomy and physiology, biology and chemistry, as confusing and annoying as they are, they serve a huge purpose in understanding the complexity of life. When you can see how everything works, and why they work, you start to see and understand that God is not just some fairy tale made up story. He did this for a purpose: to have a continuous relationship with His children. You see, you are a reflection of who God is. We will never be God, but our thoughts, feelings, actions, knowledge...they are a reflection of Him.

Human anatomy is very complex. And all systems serve its own purpose. What is amazing is all those systems compliment each other. So if one system fails, you have another system that compensates. Big bang theory or the evolution theory will not teach you that or explain why it does that. It just basically states life evolved from a big bang, which resulted in a cell. But when you really look at the anatomy of a cell, it is very complex. It's not something basic.

Let's look at something that all of us deal with on a daily basis: stress.

When we deal with a stressful situation, our body has what we call a "fight or flight" response. Sounds simple, but what goes on inside our bodies at that given moment goes faster than the speed of light.

The eyes and ears (along with your other sensors like fingers, toes..i.e your skin) send a signal to your brain. Your brain consists of a centre called the amygdala. Amygdala interprets the signal, and if it senses danger, it will send a signal to the hypothalamus.

The hypothalamus is like the control centre of a ship or a plane. It is here where the brain communicates to the rest of the body via a system called the Autonomic Nervous System (ANS). The ANS controls involuntary body functions such as increased heart rate, breathing, blood pressure, and dilation or constriction of blood vessels. The ANS further divides into two more systems: Sympathetic Nervous System (SNS) and the Parasympathetic Nervous System (PNS).

The SNS functions as the fight or flight response when it gets the danger signal. The PNS acts as the "slow down" response, or when the danger has passed. As Harvard Health puts it, it's like the gas and brake pedal of a car.

Once the hypothalamus activates the ANS system, it also sends a signal to the adrenal glands. The adrenal glands is where epinepherine is released into the blood stream (i.e adrenaline). This is where the physiological changes begin: blood pressure increases, heart rate increases, breathing increases, vasoconstriction occurs, your senses (hearing, visual) become more alert, more blood flow goes to all your vital organs. Epinepherine also triggers the release of blood sugar (or glucose) and fats from temporary storage into the bloodstream. This is to provide energy for the body while it's undergoing the stress response.

If the situation remains dangerous or very stressful, cortisol is released by the adrenal glands. This is to keep the body on high alert.

And all this occurs faster than the speed of light.

With prolonged stress or chronic stress, it is detrimental to one's health. The constant release of epinepherine can result in damaged blood vessels and arteries, resulting in increased risk of stroke or heart attacks. You can start to feel chest pain, or angina, because of the changes in the blood vessels due to chronic stress. High levels of cortisol results in increased appetite. This is why some people eat a lot when they are stressed, because of the high levels of cortisol in the blood stream, which leads to weight gain and obesity. That in itself leads to many health problems: hypertension, diabetes, athlerosclerosis, lipidemia, high cholesterol (to name a few), and thus if uncontrolled, can lead to kidney failure.

This is just a glimpse into one of the "basic" systems of the human body. I say "basic" because people think it's easy, but it really isn't all that basic or easy when you start to understand the anatomy behind it. It's not just one individual system, but all systems of the human body are intertwined. They compliment each other, and if one fails, it will affect the others. The others can only do so much to compensate before the entire body collapses.

Stress kills, yes it does. But we cannot let stress take over our lives. We have to start by looking after ourselves too. There are many ways to counter stress and it all comes down to whether we put our minds to make a change: our diet, our breathing exercises, yoga, physical exercise, removing stressors from our lives, having quiet time, finding good balance in our busy lives, getting enough rest and sleep, having great relationships with family and friends. All the little bits here and there help make a bigger positive picture.

And this is why I am amazed at life and how complex life is. I am amazed that God is not just some fairy tale person that you read to your kids before bedtime. He is real, He is here with us, and we are a mere reflection of who He is. It is up to us whether we want to get to know Him more in our lives or not. Everyone has their own ways of accepting Christ. For me, it was the topic of biology and anatomy/physiology of the human body that really awed me. Maybe not everything will make sense in life, but it's enough to convince me that God is real.